Why I do Mach Drills "A Skips"

Published: Mon, 10/16/17

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I am excited to announce the 4th instalment of the World Speed Summit starting Monday Oct 23rd. Along with Dan Pfaff and Al Vermeil, they have the legendary Brooks Johnson, who has coached Olympians since 1960! I was lucky to interview him back in 2012 (the article & video is on my blog).

>> Click here for the World Speed Summit. It is free of charge if you can set aside 4 hours a day for 4 days starting Oct 23rd.

Why I do Mach Drills "A Skips" or Marching A's

If you have seen my workouts, you’ll notice a pattern: 10 min warm up jog with dynamic movements, followed by dynamic and some static stretching, then finally onto the well known Mach Drills of A’s B’s and C’s (image of "A" skips on the left)

The A’s are the high knees with emphasis on the ankle being in dorsiflexion, or “toes up”.

Why is this so important?

To reference a coach and mentor Loren Seagrave (from his 2009 journal on Neuro-Biomechanics of Maximum Velocity - Click here for Richie Mercado’s Review Part 1 and Part 2 on the Blog):

“To minimise the moment of inertia of the thigh, it is critical for the athlete to make the leg as short as possible, as soon as possible. This means that high angular acceleration values must be realized at the knee joint. Dorsiflexion of the ankle joint accomplishes both these tasks. Occurring actively at take-off, dorsiflexion facilitates the triple flexor response. In addition, it facilitates knee flexion by the gastrocnemius. Use of stored elastic energy in the gastrocnemius and its high contraction velocity makes it possible to generate high values of angular acceleration at the knee joint. The result is a short lever as soon as possible. The ankle remains in dorsiflexion, which maintains a small knee angle throughout the entire Recovery Phase.”

By having this “triple flexion” holy grail - where hip, knee, and ankle are flexed 90 degrees (or so), you will contract faster with the toes “pointing up”, especially when the triple flexor muscles are loaded plyometrically, you will create a more elastic rebound effect. As well as having the foot in the proper position for ground strike.

Faster turnover. Stronger force for push off. Better biomechanics. I’ll take those three any day!

These drills are so engrained into me, that I still do them 27 years later.